Just over a month ago the first true bomb shell of the NBA off-season was the Clippers trading Chris Paul to the Rockets in exchange for Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, a 1st round pick and Patrick Beverley.
While Williams came in and made an impact for the Rockets after the trade deadline last season, the most valuable piece the Rockets gave away and the one that had been with the team the longest was Beverley.
Beverley averaged 9.5 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 30 minutes per game for the Rockets on 38% shooting from three-point range and seemed like the absolute perfect player to share a back court with James Harden.
Harden is a supremely gifted, ball dominant guard that needs the offense to run through him (interesting to see how that works with Paul) and loves kicking it out to open shooters. He also is somewhat legendary for his limited effort on the defensive end and Beverley’s status as a catch-and-shoot player and maybe the best defensive point guard in the league seemed like the perfect pairing.
Apparently the Rockets, and Patrick Beverly disagreed.
Patrick Beverley told Adrian Wojnarowski on his podcast for ESPN that he had requested a trade from the Rockets:
“I asked for a bigger opportunity, a bigger chance to display my skills on a high level, and I was fortunate the Rockets did really good with me and put me in a situation where I can thrive and be successful. They could have dumped me anywhere, but they did right, and I respect them a lot for it.”
While it is good that no hard feelings exist between Beverley and the Rockets, I am sure they would have had no problem sending him where ever they had to for the best deal, it just so happened that deal was to a place he desired to play in Los Angeles in exchange for Chris Paul.
Beverley was perfect in the role he was in and should have more self-awareness to the fact that even if he is the starting point guard for the Clippers, he will split time with Milos Tedosic and Tedosic and Blake Griffin will likely have the ball in their hands the most.
Either way, sometimes a fresh start is a good thing and the Clippers acquired one of the best defensive point guards in the league in Beverley.
